Salmon Arm, BC (January 31, 2025) – Cooper Pierson racked up three points, Nate Yellowaga scored his first on the season and Nathan Free had a two goal game as the Bandits ran away with a 6-1 win over the Salmon Arm Silverbacks in the first of the three game BC road trip.
Goaltender Zach Zahara made 23 saves for his second win of the season.
In the opening period, it didn’t take long for the Bandits to get going as Pierson netted finished off a two-on-one pass from Free. Just over a minute later, forward AJ Lacroix doubled the Bandits lead on the powerplay, tapping in Pierson shot off the endboards. Pierson picked up his third point with a solo drive to the net, which was cleaned up by forward Nathan Brown, who scored his fifth on the year to extend the Bandits lead to 3-0.
In the middle frame, Free picked up the misplayed puck from Salmon Arm goaltender Andrew Ballantyne, recording his 21st goal of the year to extend the Bandits to a 4-0 lead. Later in the period, Silverbacks forward Dakota MacIntosh picked the top corner over Zahara to put the Silverbacks on the board.
Into the third period, defencemen Nate Yellowaga fired a puck off the end board and it got a bounce off of the skate of goaltender Daniel Dirracolo, who came in to replace Ballantyne, and was deflected into the net as he got his first goal of the season. Free got sprung on a breakaway just before the halfway point in the period to get his second goal of the game and sent the Bandits on to a 6-1 win over the Silverbacks.
The Bandits head to Penticton tomorrow to take on the Vees in the second game of the three game road trip at 6 PM PST. Catch the broadcast live with Nathan Crosby on Flo Hockey or on New Country 105.7.
